CLOUD RAIDER VOX LORE

‘CLOUD RAIDER’ VOX LORE

by SugarVenom

A sprite named Loo stole Vox while the others slept. Celeste, being the girl, was the only one with any privacy; Vox was stuffed in a barracks with the Gythians and his snoring father. Ultimately it was a case of mistaken identity, for the sprite was nearsighted and panicky on account of The Audacity’s captain was missing. So she sped in through the high window and tugged at Vox’s nose with both her tiny hands and shouted her squeaks into his ear, which was half her size. “Captain, Captain! There’s a fight about!”

Vox swatted her away in his sleep as if she were a giant mosquito, which enraged her, so she yanked up his eyelid with a fistful of his lashes and poked his eyeball. Of course then she had to pinch his lips shut so he wouldn’t wake the others in the room with his howls, and when he resisted jumping out of the high window with her, she sneezed sprite dust on him to make him float and towed him along after her like a big ship after a tugboat.

And that is how Vox became the captain of the great airship The Audacity, for its original captain never returned from wherever he had gotten to.

Since it had not been the first time that Vox’s life had gone topsily-turvily, he took on his new duties with grace. He fought the Battle of the Sky Captains, which of course you know all about, and emerged victorious. Two fleets of enemy airships became his rightful property, and their crews pledged their fealty to him. He installed speakers and amplifiers on the decks and used sound to defeat his adversaries and throw grand parties.

Life was so fun in the world of flying corsairs and pixie dust that Vox forgot to miss his family for a long time, but one night, Loo demanded a bedtime story. Vox told her the tale of Celeste and her own very important adventure, and the telling made him ache.

The next morning, The Audacity soared over the Halcyon Fold and hovered over Celeste’s little party of rebels. Vox straddled the gangplank and grinned like a rogue as the fleet he’d won sank through the clouds, a hundred airships at least, from schooners to coracles, all flying Celeste’s flag. “I’ve brought you a navy!” he sang out. And the rebellion began.